Apple donates iPhone 11 to 100cameras to teach students photography

Image Credit: Apple

Apple has teamed up with 100cameras, a nonprofit organization that teaches adolescents the foundations of photography and visual storytelling.

Students at DRW College Prep are given an iPhone 11, which features the line's new double camera system. The students are encouraged to tell their personal stories about growing up in a city that faces increasing gentrification and gun violence.

"As the residents of a neighborhood in Chicago that is often overlooked, being given the new iPhone that had been released just a few weeks prior felt like a momentous opportunity," says Angela Popplewell, 100cameras' co-founder and CEO, according to Apple's press release.

"To see how excited they were to utilize the camera tools specific to this model uplifted their creativity even more. It was incredible seeing how they chose to utilize the wide-angle and Portrait modes to really capture their point of view and specific expressions."

The program hopes to give students an important tool for coping with their changing city.

"Great effort was put into destroying the will, spirit and resolve of this community," says Amit Khatkhate, a learning specialist at DRW. "You can see that in the mindsets and visions of so many of our students." While the neighborhood was a haven for many in the 19th and 20th centuries, today DRW is working hard to be one for its students.

Despite the hardships the community has endured, the students are still full of hope and full of pride in their city. 100cameras hopes to instill tools to help students flip the narrative on how outsiders view their home.

J, a student in the program, explains what the program has taught him.

"I've learned is that you don't necessarily have to have the skills or be precise with every shot. A story tells itself. You just got to capture that story, and then convey that story to others."

After each program, 100cameras sells prints of the students' photos, with 100 percent of the proceeds being donated back into local community partner organizations.